Microfluidics has long been used to manipulate fluids in channels with height and width that typically range from 1 to 500 micrometers. Fluids are moved in volumes of nanoliters or microliters. “Lab-on-a-chip” technology has used microfluidics to perform chemical reactions and analyses at very high speeds while consuming small amounts of starting materials. Various chemical reactions require difficult conditions such as high pressure and high temperatures. Microfluidic systems use miniaturized reactors, mixers, heat exchangers, and other processing elements for performing chemical reactions on a miniature scale. Such systems are useful for reactions such as pharmaceutical or laboratory reactions where very small and accurate amounts of chemicals are necessary to successfully arrive at a desired product. Furthermore, use of microfluidic systems increases efficiency by reducing diffusion times and the need for excess reagents.
Applications for microfluidic systems are generally broad, but commercial success has been slow to develop in part because microfluidic devices are difficult and costly to produce. Another significant hurdle in microfluidics is addressing the macroscale to microscale interface. Other considerable problems include clogging of the systems, fouling of the reagent in the system, and supplying new reagent once the previous supply is depleted, clogged, or fouled. Furthermore, waste accumulations and air bubbles interfere with proper microfluidic system operation. Also, some reaction applications require extremely high temperature reactors, which have previously been unavailable in micro- and nanoscale devices. Thus, there is a need for a low cost solution for microfluidic systems. Preferably, but not necessarily, such solution would allow easy replacement of reagent once its supply is depleted, clogged, or fouled, and allow for remotely flushing waste and air bubbles from a microfluidic system in order to minimize losses of costly reagent. Also, such solution would preferably be capable of extremely high temperature use at or above five hundred (500) degrees Celsius.
The above and other needs are met by a modular and reconfigurable multi-stage high temperature microreactor cartridge apparatus and system for using the same. The cartridge is connected to a fluidic system for reacting one or more reagents at temperatures ranging above about five hundred (500) degrees Celsius and produces one or more products. The cartridge includes a plurality of cartridge ports each for receiving fluid from the fluidic system or supplying fluid to the fluidic system. The cartridge also includes small bore tubing having an inner diameter of about one to about twenty-five hundred micrometers. The small bore tubing has a first transport portion connected to a first one of the plurality of cartridge ports, a second transport portion connected to a second one of the plurality of cartridge ports and a body portion for connecting the first transport portion to the second transport portion, the body portion wound substantially in the shape of a coil wherein the first transport portion and the second transport portion are disposed in substantially parallel planes to a plane defined by at least one turn of the coil. Finally, in some embodiments, the cartridge includes a housing substantially surrounding at least the body portion of the small bore tubing for protecting the small bore tubing and regulating heat exchange to and from the small bore tubing in order to facilitate reaction of the one or more reagents producing one or more products.
In some embodiments, the small bore tubing is microfluidic tubing having an inner diameter of about one to about five hundred micrometers. In some embodiments, the small bore tubing is glass capillary tubing and the housing is either ceramic, metal, glass or some other material.
A method produces one or more radioactive products with a fluidic system using the cartridge described above. The method includes providing one or more reagents, reacting a first reagent of the one or more reagents in the coil of the cartridge at temperatures above about five hundred (500) degrees Celsius producing one or more streams of products, and separating the one or more radioactive products from the one or more streams of products. In some embodiments, the one or more radioactive products is a [C-11] labeled product. In some embodiments, the radioactive product is methyl-iodide. In yet other embodiments, the one or more of the radioactive products is reacted with a second reagent of the one or more reagents in a methylation reaction to produce a final product, which, in some embodiments, is a pharmaceutical product. In some embodiments, the temperature of the coil of the cartridge is about seven hundred and twenty (720) degrees Celsius.